The Best Travel Jacket Ever?

Mark Orwoll

December 02, 2009

That’s me and Pepper, just back from a stroll about the grounds of Chateau Orwoll. I’m wearing the Quantum Jacket from ScotteVest, or SeV, which I wish I had had with me a month ago during a two-week multi-country trip, because it’s the best travel jacket I’ve ever worn. The main reason it’s so great? Storage.

You might ask, Why does Mark need all these things for a simple dog-walk around his exurban empire? You’re missing the point, mate. You won’t find a garment with more pockets (28, to be exact) this side of Harpo Marx’s closet. I could have carried even more stuff (hot cup of coffee, functioning blowtorch), but at the time I posed for the picture I still hadn’t found all the hiding places. This isn’t just a jacket—it’s a piece of carry-on luggage.

The creator of the Quantum jacket ($250, from www.scottevest.com) and founder/CEO of SeV is outdoorsman and traveler Scott Jordan, who. Like many of us, wanted but couldn’t find smart-looking travel wear that would hold a lot safely and without looking bulky. The reason? Most clothing companies, he says, add pockets as an after-thought. “We first asked ourselves, what do people want to carry with them? Then we worked back from there.” SeV’s line of jackets even has a patented system forstringing the wires of your head phones so they don’t get in your way.

I don’t usually buy clothing that comes with directions, but I can appreciate why SeV products are filled with small instruction cards telling you the best ways to use the clothing. The website even has videos with detailed instructions. But finding the hidden pockets on your own, and deciding how best to use them, is part of the fun of SeV clothing.

SeV makes slimmer jackets in fleece, with nearly as many pockets as the heftier Quantum. They also make pants with as many as 10 pockets, as well as windbreakers pullovers, shorts, polos, vests—check out Jordan’s YouTube vest demo, below—and T-shirts, all with the traveler in mind. In fact, apart from the shoes, everything I’m wearing in the picture at top, including the cap (with hidden pockets, natch) is from SeV. The company’s next product? A trench coat with the requisite hidden compartments, plus pockets sufficiently capacious to hold a dopp kitand some shirts.

Jordan claims that spies have purchased his clothing. I don’t know about that, but I know there’s at least one person who operates outside the law wearing a Quantum jacket—specifically, whoever stole mine from a Mexican restaurant in White Plains over the weekend. But that’s allright: I had already removed all the instruction cards, so the sneaky bugger will never figure out how to use it!